Everything That Glitters Ain't Gold - Danielle Martin (the snowy day read aloud .txt) 📗

 “Everything was perfect, Hazel…” Jade had not stopped smiling yet. She grinned from ear to ear as she stared up at the ceiling, reminiscing on her night. “Blake is a wonderful man. He’s such a gentleman. And he’s sweet and very intelligent.”

Ava listened with open ears as Jade described how perfect he was. She spoke very highly of him. “So what happened??? Where did you guys go???” Ava couldn’t help but ask. She was fairly surprised when the two decided to leave the bar together. Jade wasn’t the promiscuous type. Picking up women at bars was not Blake’s thing.

Jade smiled. “It was getting noisy in there. I asked him if he wanted to leave…”

Ava’s jaw dropped instantly. She gasped “Really??? You asked him to leave??? And he said yes???” she asked in a surprised tone.

Jade tilted her head to the side, giving her the side eye. “Of course, he said yes. Why wouldn’t he???” she asked curiously.

Ava fell silent. She wanted to warn Jade but she didn’t want to scare her either. Indeed, Blake is a nice guy. He’s drop dead gorgeous, a gentleman and extremely sweet and kind to any woman he meets. But his kind gestures could be misleading. Ava had seen this all before. Her mind reminisced, remembering those women she attempted to hook him up with once upon a time. Several of them had truly fallen head over heels for Blake only to be let down after discovering he wasn’t really interested. She didn’t want that to happen to Jade. She deserved better…

“No reason…” Ava quickly played it off. “Well did you have a good time??? Where did he take you??” Ava asked the next question that she was dying to know. Unknowingly, she held her breath awaiting an answer. It was almost 4 in the morning. Late night hours. Way too late for a woman to be hanging with a man she wasn’t screwing. Ava was probably jumping to conclusions, but she couldn’t help but wonder what type of guy Blake was behind closed doors. Deep down inside, she hoped he had not taken advantage of her.

Jade took a moment before she responded which made Ava even more nervous. Finally, she parted her lips to speak. “We went to the river walk.” She answered, referring to the riverfront board walk which wasn’t too far from her home. Ava took a deep sigh of relief. Her response was the exact response she hoped to hear. He had taken her somewhere public. “That’s nice.” Ava complimented her. “How was it? Did you have fun with him? What do you think of him?” she bombarded Jade with questions. Ava could not mask her curiosity. She had waited up all night and was dying to hear something interesting. Jade smirked. “He’s great. We are going on a second date.” With that being said, she stood to her feet. Ava slowly followed her with her eyes, looking up at her with a curious eye. She could sense Jade was being standoffish and a little secretive about her night with Blake. Although she wanted to badly to pressure her into providing details, she didn’t want to be all up in their business. Ava said she would hook them up. She had done her part. So if the deed had already been complete, she didn’t understand why she was so intrigued.

  Lightly, Jade stretched and began to yawn. “I’m a little tired. Maybe we can talk in the morning.”

Ava kept a straight face attempting to hide her disappointment. Her lips curved into a weak smile. “Sure…” she answered in a fake, accepting tone. Jade knew exactly what she was doing. It wasn’t like her to keep secrets. The real Jade couldn’t hold a bag of water even if she wanted to. She watched as her friend happily skip across the room towards the hallway to head towards her bedroom. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot…” Jade halted in her tracks. She turned towards Ava. “Blake told me to let you know Lance was really feeling you. He would like to go out again…”

Jade did not respond immediately. Instead, she nodded her head. “Hmmmm….” She thought about Lance and couldn’t deny the fact he was a pretty intelligent guy. They had engaged in a conversation after being left alone at the table and Ava had come to discover they had a lot in common. Lance was a 34-year-old English professor at Wilmington University.  Surprisingly, he was single, never married and did not have any children. Based upon his physical and moral attributes, Lance had it going on. He was the entire package and had everything a woman could want. But Ava was not interested in pursuing anything. She had a lot to figure out in her life and could not afford any distractions. “Thanks for letting me know…” she answered without giving any additional detail.

Jade eyed her suspiciously. She smirked while turning her back. “No problem….” she headed down the hallway towards her room. “Oh one more thing…” Jade shouted over her shoulder. “You need to call your man whenever you get a chance. Desean has been blowing up my phone like crazy!”

Instantly, the mention of his name made her heart drop into her stomach. Ava swallowed the huge lump in her throat as Jade disappeared around the corner into her bedroom, having no idea how uneasy she just made her feel. Just the thought of Desean calling sent Ava into a mental frenzy. She had immediately placed his number on the blocked list and should have known it would only be a matter of time before he began calling Jade’s phone. Taking a deep breath, Ava plopped her body back down on the sofa as her anxiety took over her body. Desean was not a dumb man. He knew where she was hiding out. She couldn’t hide forever. He was going to come looking and Ava did not want to wait around for him to arrive. Her heart beat out of her chest as she silently mapped out a plan… I have to figure out something… I have to figure out what I’m going to do… Ava silently chanted inside her head. Desean will never allow me to walk out of his life… I have to make up my mind… I have to escape this… Or else I will be stuck forever… Ava turned on her side, her mind wandering a million miles per minute. I have to get my car. I have to get the rest of my things out of that house. There’s no more contemplating… No more waiting... It’s either now or never…  I have to escape this relationship if I want to make it out alive… I can no longer allow him to put fear in my heart… I have to leave if it’s the last thing I do…

 

 

 

Chapter 10.

Chapter 10.

 

“We talked about everything, Hazel. Our childhood memories. Our favorite movies. Our favorite foods. His passion is photography and he wants to be a professional photo and videographer. Did you know that he is a fan of Japanese Anime? His favorite album to listen to in the winter time is Electric Lady land by Jimi Hendrix. He’s so in touch with his intellectual side.” Jade rambled as she went down the list, speaking in a chipper, girly tone while describing the man of her dreams. Ava strolled alongside her. Her hands were stuck in her back pocket as she trailed down the sidewalk, staring down at her feet as they walked. Jade had been blabbering since they parked the car about a block away. She couldn’t stop talking about how great Blake was. Everything was Blake this, Blake that. Ava smiled then secretly looked to the side and rolled her eyes. Her excitement was great but slightly draining. They had been walking close to 10 minutes now and her feet were beginning to cramp. It was Jade’s idea to take the lengthy scroll. If it were up to Ava, she would have parked closer to the building. But Jade was persistent on making a grand entrance and convinced her to park somewhere they could not be easily spotted. Together, they walked down the street approaching the lightened building across the street. “Finally, we are here…” Ava spoke tiringly while glancing up at the large, tall building towering over them. The brightly lit sign read “The pointe 14 in large bold letters. The pointe 14 was newly built, modernly up to date and one of the most popular Movie theaters in Wilmington. It wasn’t too crowded which was a good thing. Ava had never been to the theater before and she had not expected her first time to be underneath these circumstances. She looked over at Jade. “Is he here yet?” she asked.

Jade looked around and scanned the small crowd. “He said he would be here 30 minutes before the movie starts.” She glanced down at her watch, checking for the time. “He should definitely be here by now.”

Ava too began looking around, hoping he was a man of his word and actually showed up on time. Suddenly, Ava stopped. In an instant, she froze still while making eye contact with someone staring at her from across the parking lot. She leaned in, her vision focusing on the familiar face. Jade on the other hand, was busy looking everywhere else and had not noticed him just yet. But Ava noticed him. And in return, he noticed her too. For some reason, Ava didn’t say anything or call out to him right away because he did not make any sudden movements. Blake stared at her from across the parking lot, looking directly at Ava making direct eye contact.  They stared for at least 10 seconds before Ava came to the realization that he had not taken his eyes off of her. What the hell is he looking at????  She asked inside her head. As usual, his gaze was intense. At least 30 seconds went by before Ava realized she was in a daze. Shaking herself out of her trance, Ava turned and nudged Jade, finally grabbing her attention. “I see Blake. He’s over there.” She pointed in his direction. Blake stood across the street standing by the entrance. He smiled and waved after finally making eye contact with Jade. Ava examined him from a distance. He wore a pair of faded jeans, a button down black shirt and matching black shoes. He was dressed casual, but extremely handsome in his outfit. Ava tried not to notice how good he looked, but it was inevitable. Blake was a very attractive man. He had always been. She had done a great job paying no attention to it back in college, but now his attraction was becoming harder and harder to ignore at the wrong damn time. Quickly, she pushed those thoughts into the back of her mind and motioned for Jade to follow her. “You ready?” she asked.

Jade winked and dramatically flipped her freshly washed hair over her shoulder. “As ready as I will ever be.” She spoke with more confidence than she had last night. Ava smirked. She had never seen Jade this eager to meet someone. Although Ava still was not 100% convinced on her and Blake, she was happy for Jade and glad she was